


More Than Just Memories

by startrekkingaroundasgard



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flying, Gen, Genius Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Grief/Mourning, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, Morgan Stark-centric (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), References to Depression, Science, Self-Harm, Teen Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22614385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekkingaroundasgard/pseuds/startrekkingaroundasgard
Summary: When Morgan Stark accidentally discovers a working prototype of her father’s time travel equipment, she travels back in time to different points in his life. It’s dangerous, and she knows she can’t change too much or risk the fate of the universe, but Morgan can’t resist the chance to see her dad again. She offers advice and consolation during Tony’s darkest times, shares his excitement and joy during the best times.Or, 5 times Morgan went back to be there for Tony and 1 time he was there for her.
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark
Comments: 15
Kudos: 118





	1. Chapter 1

The first time Morgan Stark time-travelled, it was a complete and utter accident. 

She was eight and three quarters (those three quarters being very important) and was searching in the garage for supplies for her electronics project when she found it. Hidden behind robot skeletons and spare chairs and cars which hadn’t seen the light of day for years - despite her best arguments, Morgan had yet to convince her mother that she was old enough to drive - was a pile of small boxes, labelled Tony.

They sat upon a round platform, with tall arms and wires hanging from an open panel. It was no design that Morgan recognised but she guessed it was a prototype energy converter of some kind. Her dad had been working on that before he… Well, before he left. 

Morgan pulled the boxes down one at a time and set them around her. A thin layer of dust covered the airtight polymer boxes and she drew patterns in the dust, gathering the courage to look inside. When she finally pried the lid off the first box, she found scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings from thirty years previous, detailing the life of her father. 

They were funny; the journalists didn’t seem to like her dad much back then but he hadn’t cared. Scribbled across the articles, in her father’s familiar hand, were many rude comments and a selection of doodles that made Morgan laugh. He hadn’t cared what they thought; or maybe he had, she realised, or he wouldn’t have kept them in the first place. 

As she searched through the rest of the boxes, a desperate ache in her chest, Morgan flicked through photo albums of her parents together, blueprints of inventions never made and - most importantly - a selection of images from her childhood that she’d never seen before. One was even holographic; when Morgan held it up, the scene came to life. Her father grabbed her by the ankles and spun her around, eventually chucking her into a lake. 

Morgan set that particular photo aside to take it back up to the main house later on. 

The most interesting find was a watch, hidden at the top of a box full of robot parts. Strange in its design, big and clumsy like old smart watches, the screen was dark and cracked. Morgan tapped it, confused to find that it didn’t tell the time at all. Instead, a string of numbers which she quickly identified as a date - her birthday, she noted with interest - and a few other digits she couldn’t place. No doubt the programme was corrupted but the young girl was certain she could fix it. 

She slipped it on her wrist and that ache in her heart increased. Her dad had worn this. It was a tangible reminder that he had really been here. The cold metal chilled her skin but it made her chest grow warm as she felt closer to her father than she had in years. 

Morgan tapped the little screen again, hoping that if it held enough charge to show a date that maybe it would still work well enough for her to fix it. However, instead, she suddenly found herself swallowed up by a blinding vortex. 

When the flashing blue lights cleared, Morgan found herself standing in a hospital. She had barely opened her eyes before she doubled over and threw up in a plant pot. The world spun around her, the floor rippled beneath her feet as she fought to keep her balance. The lights were too bright, burning her retina, and the air smelled weird, sharp with antiseptic. The young girl did not like it at all. 

The clock on the wall read 11:15 and Morgan stumbled towards it, tripping over a chair in the process. She fell face first into a discarded newspaper which confirmed her blurry mind’s suspicions. It was 2019, the day she was born. 

She stared at the band around her trembling wrist in awe. This was no watch after all, then. It was one of her father’s time travel guidance systems. The ones which had, apparently, been destroyed and all information regarding them deadlocked in FRIDAY’s systems to never be accessed again. 

On the little screen, the numbers now showed a countdown: she had less than ten minutes before she was drawn back to the present. Morgan dreaded the return. This was clearly not a journey to be taken without a suit, something she’d remember in the future - if she survived the trip back. Still, with so little time to waste, she pushed past the burning pain in her muscles and the disorientation beneath the bright lights.

“Can you help me? I’m looking for -” Morgan tried to ask the nurses for assistance but they walked straight past her, stretched too thin in their work to pay her attention. She turned to general members of the public but received a similar iciness. “Excuse me, I - Do you know - Please, I don’t have long -”

By the time her mind cleared enough to realise no one would help her, the churning in Morgan’s stomach had subsided so that she could move without feeling like death warmed up. A quick glance in each direction confirmed the coast was clear and she darted forwards behind the empty reception’s desk.

She searched for Stark but was met with no result. Potts also yielded no answers. It figured. Her parents were famous; they wouldn’t use their own name. Morgan wracked her brain for any other possible names her mother might have been admitted under. Virginia Carbonell. Hogun. Carter. 

There! Great Aunt Peggy coming through for their family once again. 

Noting the room number, 199, Morgan raced upstairs to the private rooms. She swerved around all the nurses, avoiding them by some miracle given how little balance she had, only to run straight into a man - her father! 

“I’m so sorry, da - uh, Mr Stark…” The name felt weird on her tongue. 

“It’s fine,” he mumbled, not looking away from his phone. He looked tired, the dark bags under his eyes enhanced by the bright light from the screen. Finished with his text, her father finally glanced down and his eyes widened upon seeing the sick looking girl in front of him. “Are you alright? Sit down. Are you lost?”

Morgan let him guide her to a set of nearby chairs, grateful to be off her feet. “Uh, no. Not any more. My mother is one of these rooms.”

“Best stay out til you’re sure she’s had the baby. You don’t wanna see the mess down there.” Her father grimaced. “Better to leave the professionals to it than watch a new Alien sequel.”

“What?”

He shook his head, a ghost of a smile on his lips. It was a familiar action to Morgan, although she couldn’t quite recall why. “Never mind. How old are you, kid? Five? Sixteen?”

“Nearly nine,” Morgan proclaimed proudly. 

“Nice. What do you do for fun? Climb electric fences? Egg politicians? Draw pictures of your cat?”

“I don’t have a cat. We have an alpaca. And I know the Vice President. He’s cool.” 

Her uncle Rhodey had been recently elected into office and was on track to be the most respected and liked politician ever. At least that’s what the news said. It was almost trustworthy again too so she believed it. 

Laughing at her father’s disbelief, she continued, “And I’m about to finish high school so I’m too busy to climb electric fences right now.”

She expected him to react with shock. Most people did and Morgan was well accustomed to the questions: “Aren’t you a little young?” or “You must be super smart?”. What she didn’t expect was for her father to furrow his brow and ask with such concern, “I guess your parents are sending you off to college next year then?”

“Well, MIT and Harvard want me but mum says I don’t have to go if I don’t want to. She says I can have a lab of my own and build whatever I want.”

“That’s good of her. Do you ever get lonely?”

“Sometimes but when mum is busy I’ve got Helen for company,” she answered honestly. Being the smartest person in the room was never easy and as such she’d had trouble making friends. However, Helen - or, rather, H.E.L.E.N, Morgan’s own private AI - was always around to help Morgan on her projects and be her friend when she had none. 

“It’s good you’ve got someone. Is building things what you want to do? Really?” 

That was a far easier question to answer. “Well, of course! It’s what my… what my dad did…” She swallowed the lump in her throat. Talking about her father was never easy, even when he - or a version of him, she supposed - was right there in front of her. “I just want to make the world a better place. Like he did.”

Tony smiled and gently squeezed her shoulder. It was all Morgan could do not to lean in for a hug. “I’m sure you will, a smart girl like you.”

“I’m a genius.”

“What?” Amusement twinkled in his eyes, clearly unaccustomed to being corrected. And certainly not by children. 

Tilting her head to the side, her long brown hair falling across her face, Morgan said, “I’m not smart. I’m a genius.”

“Have we met before? You look familiar. I don’t know your mum, do I?” The slight edge of panic in his voice was funny. Morgan had seen stories in the scrapbooks about ‘illegitimate’ Stark children over the years, desperate attempts to get a share of the family fortune, fame and glory which had all inevitably been disproven. 

Still, the press had loved the idea of scandal and run with it year after year. They’d called him some rather unkind things when he was young. Now, though, they only ever called him a hero and that’s what Morgan knew to be the truth. 

She opened her mouth to either tease or assure him - she hadn’t decided which - when the watch began to flash. No! Morgan thought. It’s too soon!

However desperately she wanted to stay, Morgan knew better than to wait. Her father may forget a young girl but he would certainly remember if she vanished before his eyes. Forcing a smile on her face, Morgan said, “I, uh, need the bathroom. It was nice to see - to meet you, Mr Stark. And don’t be nervous about your baby. I know you’ll be the best dad she could ever want. You’ll be a great father to her. I promise.”

Morgan left her confused father and all but sprinted down the hallway. She barely made it through the nearest set of doors before the vortex swallowed her up and dumped her back into the present, in her garage. Just like before, she doubled over and vomited in a nearby bucket. 

Barely given time to gather her witts, Morgan heard her mother call, “If I can pull you from your important business, lunch is ready, Madam Secretary.”

When she didn’t respond, Pepper stepped inside and weaved through the mass of junk in the garage to find her. Morgan hid the watch/time travel device behind her back but her mother was too taken aback by the assortment of albums and photos to take much notice. She sat on a step and gripped the edge for support, putting on a smile but shaking beneath. “What… What did you find, sweetie?”

“Dad.” Upset over seeing her mother so sad, Morgan scrambled over and took her hand. (She was actually grateful for the mess around her, as it gave her an excuse to clumsily crawl across the space and not stand up.) “You said something about sandwiches?”

“I… Yes. Yes.” Pepper’s smile was still stiff but it softened when she looked upon her daughter. “Your favourite.”

“Can I feed the crusts to Gerald?”

Pepper shook her head. “No, darling, I’ve told you before. You’ll make him sick.”

“What about the goats?”

“Fine, you can feed them to Jenkins if, and only if, you eat your oranges.”

Unsettled as her stomach was after her impromptu time travel adventure, Morgan wasn’t sure she’d be able to eat anything at all. However, she couldn’t let her mother know about the discovery of the equipment. She’d take it away and Morgan would never be able to see Tony again.

So, instead, Morgan put on her brightest smile and ignored the way her stomach lurched as she jumped to her feet. Hand on her mother’s shoulder, supporting herself physically and her mother emotionally, she conceded “Okay, you win. Just this once, though. Hey, can you tell me about the day I was born? Was dad there when I was born?”

“Goodness no,” Pepper chuckled. “There was no need for him to see that. Your dad would only have gotten in the way or gotten bored! He sat outside. I vaguely remember him chatting to a little girl. Said she was sweet. Told him he’d be a great dad.”

“She was right.”

“Yeah, she was, wasn’t she?”


	2. Chapter 2

The second time Morgan Stark time travelled, it was not an accident. That is not to say that the trip was without its difficulties, though. 

It took Morgan two years to decode FRIDAY’s secure files and gain access to her father’s notes on spatial and temporal shift. He’d been very thorough in ensuring his theories would never been seen - or used - and it certainly didn’t help that Morgan had to do it all in secret. For every day she spent trying to crack Tony’s security measures, she spent another three days hiding her tracks from FRIDAY for fear that the AI would report the break in to her mother. 

As it turned out, that was the easy part. Once Morgan had gotten into the files, she found them corrupted by the very process she used to crack them open in the first place. It took a further year of study and secret communications with experts far older but far less intelligent for the young girl to eventually reach a point where she was willing to face time travelling again. 

This time, she took precautions. It had taken months for the sickness and other nasty side effects of travelling unprotected through the vortex (which included blacking out and losing time, unexplainable nosebleeds and hair growing shorter instead of longer) to subside. She’d learned from her mistakes though. 

Now, Morgan had ‘borrowed’ her mother’s _Rescue_ armour - certain that she wouldn’t notice as she never wore it anyway, just as her father had once joked. Protected by the blue shell, which shrunk to fit her perfectly thanks to the nano technology, Morgan stepped on to the weird platform in the corner of her lab. 

She’d had it moved here last year to study it, to learn its secrets and understand the role it played. Its presence explained away as a new testing chamber for her other projects, Morgan managed to keep her mother out of the loop with relative ease. Getting extra Pym particles to make the equipment work had been simpler than expected although Morgan feared that the thousands of dollars used to pay for them would be considerably harder to explain away than the sudden appearance of the platform itself.

Tapping in new coordinates, solidly fifty percent sure that it would take her when and where she wanted, Morgan stepped onto the metal stage. A quick glance confirmed her patched up programme was running. Her face plate materialised then she tapped the guidance system twice, bracing herself as the vortex surrounded her. 

The bright lights of the Quantum Realm, as she now knew it to be, whizzed past, blindingly beautiful. Wearing the Rescue armour had been the right decision; this was far more comfortable a trip than the first accidental one had been. 

The world solidified around her and her armour dematerialised up to reveal an unfamiliar lab. It was dark but a blue glow from the holographic screens - each filled with complex designs for everything from new arc reactors to coffee machines - kept the room lit. Morgan immediately jumped up on a stool and flicked through the blueprints, twisting the images in space for a better look. She frowned and grabbed a pen, scribbling a few notes on the side to correct simple errors in the maths. 

“Excuse me, Miss, but this is a restricted area.”

Panicked by the unexpected interruption, Morgan spun around in a desperate search for the source of the warning voice. She flipped down her visor and scanned the shadows, Rescue’s vision far better than her own. However, it soon became clear that she was alone in the lab and that, counter intuitively, filled her with peace. In her home, there was only one reason for a disembodied voice: an AI. 

“Is my dad around?”

“Mr Stark has no children,” the English voice insisted. 

“Well, not yet, I suppose. What year is it?” Morgan had spent her entire life with an AI watching over her and could interpret their silence as well as she could any human being. In fact, it was often easier for her to understand the unspoken messages of AIs than it was to actually speak to ‘real’ people. “I’m not crazy. Please just answer the question.”

Her plea convinced the AI to respond, although Morgan wondered whether it would have answered anyway. She was surprised by his answer, mostly because it hadn’t been the window of time she’d been searching for. “It’s two thousand and ten, Miss.”

Flickering her eyes back over her father’s blueprints, Morgan found another mistake and was compelled to fix it. She couldn’t help it. She took the electronic pen and began correcting the equations, only to be interrupted by the AI who unexpectedly shut down the screens. “Those plans really aren’t for public viewing, Miss.”

“Sorry. Which of Tony’s programmes are you?”

“I am JARVIS, Miss.” 

Morgan nearly fell off her seat. She’d heard so much about JARVIS as a child. Her father had told her stories of him, both the AI and the man, recounted the hundreds of times both had saved his life. Her leg bounced excitedly; of all the things she’d hoped to achieve on this trip, meeting JARVIS hadn’t been one of them but it was certainly an unexpected bonus. “You’re legendary, J.”

Sounding more touched than an AI ever had, JARVIS responded, “I doubt that, Miss. Now, if I may ask, who exactly are you?”

“You can’t tell anyone.” Morgan didn’t understand exactly what would happen to the timeline if people found out she was here but she suspected that it wasn’t great. The plan was to keep as low a profile as possible and tell no one her true identity but seeing how she’d already slipped and called Tony her father she suspected further explanations wouldn’t do much more damage to the timeline. “I’m Morgan Stark, daughter of Tony and Pepper Potts-Stark, born in twenty nineteen. I’ve travelled back in time from twenty thirty.”

“Why are you here, Miss Morgan?”

“You can call me Madam Secretary, if you want. Everyone else does. And I’m here to see my dad. Can you tell me where he is?”

JARVIS hesitated. “Mr Stark is… unavailable right now.”

That neither felt nor sounded right to Morgan. “But why? He was always free when I needed him before.”

“Technically none of that has happened yet,” JARVIS pointed out. He didn’t mean to sound cruel but his words went straight to the young girl’s heart like a dagger. It reminded her that Tony would never be there for her again, that she was alone against the world. “Is there some way I can assist you, Miss? Are you unwell? I am equipped with multiple medical subroutines which -”

“I just want to see him.” Morgan checked her watch, disheartened to see the numbers still ticking down on the screen. That was one variable she had yet to figure out; how to stay in the past longer than ten minutes. “I only have a few more minutes. Please, J, help me.”

“Are you certain you want to see him? The truth is, Mr Stark is dying. And he isn’t handling it particularly well.”

Morgan’s chest tightened at the thought of her dad in pain. “Let me help him.”

JARVIS, as perceptive as she’d been told, clearly knew his arguments would fall on deaf ears. Morgan was too much like her father, in that respect. So, he did the only thing he could and agreed. “Follow the lights on the wall and I shall lead you to him.”

The guiding lights were dim, barely flickers on the white wall, but enough for Morgan to see. She soon realised why JARVIS was being so stealthy. Up a curling flight of stairs, the young girl found herself in a large, open plan living room. The noise was overwhelming. There were people everywhere, drunk and dancing like… Well, Morgan wasn’t sure what. All she knew was that her mum would murder her if she ever danced with a boy like that. 

Deafening music pounded out from speakers larger than her, sending waves of noise which Morgan physically felt hit her from across the room. Pink and yellow lights flashed out of time to the heavy beat and people screamed to be heard over the baseline. This was a party the likes Morgan had never experienced, and never wished to again. 

She followed JARVIS’s guiding light around the edge of the room, pressed firmly against the wall to avoid the awkward gyrating bodies nearby. Thankfully, the guests were too busy ‘enjoying’ themselves to notice her sneaking by but two redheads in the crowd caught her eye. 

“J? Who’s that? In the leopard dress with my mum?”

“That is Miss Pott’s new secretary: Natalie Rushman.”

Morgan’s forehead crumpled in a frown. “Are you sure? She looks a lot like Natasha Romanoff.”

“You must be mistaken. There are no records fitting that name in my system.”

“There will be.” Morgan spared Natasha a final glance, wishing she could take time to get to know the woman who would sacrifice her life to save the world but as the seconds ticked down she knew that conversation would have to wait. Tonight, she needed to save her father. He was the priority. 

The lock on Tony’s bedroom door clicked open and Morgan crept in. Her dad stood on the far side in front of a mirror, shirt hanging slightly off his shoulders to expose a dark pattern covering his skin. It was reminiscent of a complex circuit board and looked like someone had injected ink into his veins. Morgan instinctively knew it was something far worse and couldn’t help the gasp that escaped her lips. 

Tony immediately tugged the shirt back into place and said, “I told you I’ll be down in a minute, Pep. Gotta look good for my grand entrance. Give me - You’re not Pepper. J, there’s a child in my room! There is a child, right? I’m not seeing things?”

“You are as sane as usual, Sir.”

“Right. Then why is there a child here?”

“I heard you were sick,” Morgan started. However, Tony’s eyes glazed over instantly, his defences rocketing sky high as he prepared to refute the allegation. Not wanting to be thrown out, Morgan changed tack. She stepped further into the room so the door shut behind her and asked, “Why are there so many people downstairs?”

“It’s my birthday.”

Her eyes widened. For some reason, it shocked her more than she’d intended. In her time, the world celebrated the day of her father’s death, not his birth. Silly as it was, she’d almost forgotten that he had to have had a birthday. “Do you always have big parties?”

The large bed dipped as Tony perched himself on the edge, warily watching Morgan as she crossed the room to join him. She hovered, waiting for him to give her permission, then jumped up beside him. It was hard not to be hurt when he leant back to put distance between them but she reminded herself that this Tony wasn’t her father. Not yet. 

“It’s what the people want. How did you get up here?”

“JARVIS let me in.”

“Did he now?”

“Yep. I’ve heard a lot of stories about him. He’s far nicer than I thought. Everyone always said that he was rude and sarcastic. No offense.” The AI assured her that none was taken. “Are you happy, Mr Stark?”

The question visibly threw him. He reached for a pair of glasses in his shirt pocket, fiddled with the arms before deciding not to bother with the shield. Still regarding her with slight suspicion, Tony answered, “Not particularly.”

“Then why bother with the party? You could just go to bed.”

“Drinking is more fun.”

“But you don’t drink,” Morgan pointed out. At least she never remembered her father drinking. It was an unhealthy coping mechanism, her mother said, but he found better ways to deal. With you around, Pepper had said, he had a reason to be better. 

Realising her mistake, she hastily said, “I mean, you shouldn’t. It’s not good for you and you already look like shit. Wouldn’t you rather go out for dinner with mu- Pepper?”

“And deny my adoring fans?” He spoke with bravado, flashed her a blinding smile which didn’t reach his eyes. His pain was clear to see, though. The desperate desire to do just that. To sneak away and be with the woman he loved more than anyone else in the world. 

“You don’t smile much.”

Again, Morgan’s sudden change of topic caught him off guard. “I smile all the time.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I just did. Look, I’ll do it again. See? Smile.”

“They are sad. Like you. You aren’t alone, you know. Even now. You don’t have to push people away.”

“Are you sure you aren’t a manifestation of my subconsciousness? If not, you are a very strange child.“

Morgan shrugged. “Maybe I’m just saying what you need to hear.” She reached out to take his hand, fully prepared for him to tear free of her grasp. It was as much of a shock when he didn’t. He simply sat, slightly stiffly, as she squeezed his hand and tried to reassure him that he truly wasn’t alone in his suffering. “I don’t know what you’re going to do but don’t. Please.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re going to do something reckless and stupid because of the lines of your skin and it’s going to hurt the people that care for you. Don’t give up. There is always another way and I know you’ll find it. You’re smart.”

“I’m a genius.”

Morgan laughed, recalling how she had said exactly the same thing to her father on her last trip through time. “Yes, you are. So act like it. Don’t be stupid and throw everything away just because it looks hopeless. Keep pushing on. Nothing is impossible when you set your mind to it.”

“You are a strange child. Who even are you?”

Saved by the bell, Morgan’s watch beeped as it gave the thirty second warning for her return. Unable to resist, she threw her arms around Tony and pulled him into a tight embrace. Naturally, he remained stiff and uptight but she could swear she felt him relax into the hug just before she pulled away. “I really have to go, I’m sorry. Just… be strong. Life gets better, I promise. Goodbye, Tony.”

“Goodbye, figment of my imagination.”

In the nick of time, the Rescue armour materialised around her and Tony’s eyes bulged from his sockets as she shrunk down and the vortex swallowed her up. Back in her own lab, Morgan raced out the suit and called for HELEN. “Can you look something up for me?”

“Sure thing. What do you wanna know?”

“Twenty ten, on my dad’s birthday he threw a party? Were there any newspaper reports from that night? I want to know what happened.”

As she read the reports of fighting between Tony and her uncle Rhodey, who had flown away in his own suit - later to be used by the US military - and the attacks at the Stark Expo, Morgan felt a sadness in her heart. The papers hadn’t known then but HELEN found some old SHIELD records which explained how Tony had been suffering from palladium poisoning. He would have died if he hadn’t have found a replacement metal for his arc reactor. 

He must have felt so alone, so scared.

“You did what you could, Morg,” the AI assured her. HELEN manifested in her holographic body and sat opposite Morgan, offering a soft smile. “I’m sure your words helped him.”

“Sounds like he got too drunk to remember either way.”

“Your father had a tough life. I think anytime someone showed him genuine kindness, it would have left a mark. Why don’t I have another look…” HELEN flickered as she diverted her attention to accessing the millions of files in her system. When she resolidified, she wore a triumphant look on her face. “You’ll never guess what I found.”

Morgan held her breath, too scared to dream. Taking that as her cue, the AI flicked the video onto a nearby screen. The picture came to life, showing Tony as he worked to create the element later realised to be Vibranium. His smile, so genuine compared to the ones he’d faked with her, when he sat surrounded by the holographic image made Morgan’s spirit burst with pride. 

He spun around in his chair, muttering something about his father, before coming to an abrupt halt. Tony grew serious for a moment before his uncontainable smile burst free once again. “I guess that little girl was right. Things might get better after all. Who was she, J? Really?”

“She called herself Morgan, Sir.”

“Morgan, huh?” Tony leant back in his chair, still marvelling at the wonder around him. This was how she remembered her father. Full of hope and gratitude for what he’d been gifted and just so very alive. “Can we send her a gift basket or something?”

“I very much doubt it, Sir.” 

“Yeah, you’re probably right. A bit weird that, sending gifts to a twelve year old.” Condensing the project in his hand, Tony leant back and asked, “So, what have we got here, J? Is it a viable replacement?”

“Yes, sir. However, the proposed element is impossible to synthesise.”

“Uh huh. Well, the little girl was right before. Let’s see if she is right again. Let’s make the impossible possible, shall we?”

Morgan watched the video over at least ten times before she finally tore her gaze from the screen. HELEN flashed across the room to her side, wiping away the tears from her cheeks with hands of physical light. “Oh, don’t cry. I didn’t mean to make you sad. I was only trying to help.”

“These are good tears,” she assured her, committing every single detail of her father’s smile to memory. “The best kind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think or come talk to me on Tumblr (same URL)


	3. Chapter 3

Morgan couldn’t help herself. After realising that she had the opportunity to go back in time and help make her father’s life better, the temptation was impossible to ignore. She only ever helped in little ways; she wasn’t a fool and knew going back to save him from Afghanistan or Thanos was too dangerous for the world. But she couldn’t see the harm in hopping back to cheer him up and play games with him as a kid or give him a kind smile in his darker times. 

She spent countless hours reading up on her father’s life, scouring newspapers and journals and the desperate fragments of JARVIS’s archived system, to carefully select times to go and see him. She only made the jumps a few times a month, no matter how much she wished for more, to be safe. 

With every trip she made, Morgan learned about the code behind the technology and slowly but surely made huge strides towards filling in the gaps, to re-completing her father’s final work. She even discovered how to stay in the past for longer than 10 minutes however there were still issues with narrowing down the target timeframe. Landing within a year was easy but the exact month, week or hour? That was still a little out of her reach.

For her next trip, though, it didn’t really matter. 

Morgan had recently read how lonely her father had been at MIT. There were no official reports in the papers claiming such but she’d stumbled across testimony from a few of the college’s lecturers who had raised concerns about the genius’s mental state. 

Tony had only been a year older than Morgan when he joined and she understood all too well what it was like to be the youngest, and smartest, in the room. That understanding drove her to see him, to assure him that it would be okay. If she was lucky, she might even bump into her uncle Rhodey and get the chance to thank him for putting up with her father in the process. (She couldn’t do it now, in the present, in case he got suspicious and realised what she was up to.)

Following her usual procedure, Morgan got HELEN to lock the lab door, suited up and stepped onto the platform. Plan in mind, she double checked the equipment then tapped away on her watch, grateful that the journey through the Quantum Realm no longer made her feel sick. 

It was only when she arrived did Morgan consider that she’d stick out like a sore thumb. Not only was she dressed in twenty thirties fashion, she was also far younger than everyone else on campus. And a girl. 

Deciding it was safer to keep to the shadows, Morgan found herself thankful that she’d landed in spring and not winter. A warm breeze kept her warm, making up for the fact she’d neglected to wear a coat beneath the Rescue armour. 

She found herself a bench outside Tony’s dorm, wasting time by playing games on her phone. Once again, she realised too late just how big a mistake that was for the timeline but supposed that of all the places in the world that MIT was probably the best place to be seen with super advanced technology. Students here were no doubt used to seeing bizarre inventions out and about. Still, Morgan eventually chose to err on the side of caution and slipped her phone back into her pocket and out of view. 

Her plan, flimsy as it was, was to wait for her father to walk by and simply follow him until she found the right moment to speak with him. However, as the hours passed without a sighting, she began to question if this was even the right dorm and whether this trip was doomed to fail. 

By some miracle, just as she was considering giving up and going home, a young James Rhodes walked by and Morgan immediately ran to him. He didn’t acknowledge her as she first fell into step beside him but kept stealing glances at her as they walked. 

“He’s locked himself in the lab,” Rhodey said, breaking the silence. “Survives on coffee and cold pizza. He won’t talk to you and if he actually does let you in then it will all be gibberish. Sleep deprived Tony makes no sense.”

“I… Thanks? Don’t you want to ask who I am?”

Rhodey laughed. “No need. You look just like Tones and have that same weird child genius vibe. Guessing you’re the awkward cousin he mentions sometimes. He must rave about me if you can pick me out on sight.”

“You’re the best friend he ever - he’s ever had.”

The sincerity of her words threw Rhodey for a moment but he soon regained his cool. “Well. He’s an obnoxious twerp at time so he doesn’t have many. But he can be a blast to hang around with. Sometimes. Don’t tell him that. So, what did you come all this way for anyway -?”

“Morgan,” she supplied, holding back a laugh. She wondered how shocked he’d be if her uncle knew just how far she’d really come. “I wanted to check on him, that’s all. Make sure he’s okay.”

“As I said, Tone’s is in one of his… creative moods so good luck.” Rhodey gestured to a large steel door. “It’s not meant to be private but no one else likes working near him after last year’s final project ended so… Dramatically. It caught fire and shorted out the entire building. Then that idiotic robot arm tried to put it out with ethanol solution. Quite the show.”

Morgan was speechless. There had been no mention of that particular disaster in any of her research. “No one got hurt, did they?”

“Nah. It just destroyed a few prototypes and spawned the biggest midnight bonfire party that MIT has ever seen.” Rhodey’s eyes glazed over for a moment, no doubt remembering the epic party. He shook himself from the memories and smiled at Morgan, patting her lightly on the shoulder. “If you do get through to him, try and make him sleep. If not… Maybe take away anything sharp and pointy. See you round, Morgan." 

Rhodey didn’t wait around and she was soon alone in the hallway. Morgan took a deep breath then knocked gently on the door. "Hello? Tony? Are you in here?

There was no answer so she pushed the door open, braving the dingey lab. Her nose wrinkled at the smell, a combination of burnt plastic, sharp chemicals and the very distinctive odour of a teenage boy who hadn’t showered in days - possibly weeks. 

She found Tony draped awkwardly over a work bench, a robotic arm perched beside him to keep him from falling spectacularly off the stool. Patchy stubble covered his jaw, the perfect match to his wild, untrimmed hair. Deep, dark bags sat beneath his eyes and he looked just a little underweight as if he wasn’t taking proper care of himself. Even now, long before he’d considered saving it, he still seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

Morgan had always known life hadn’t been kind to her father but seeing him this way, when he was so young, really drove it home. 

Scanning the lab - there was undoubtedly some complicated filing system to bring order to the madness but to the untrained eye it just looked messy - Morgan spotted a tattered blanket. There were also cushions stuffed beneath one of the stations, prompting her to wonder whether her father slept here often. She collected the thin piece of fabric, hand stitched with his initials in the corner, and draped it over his shoulders. 

She almost left then, deciding there was nothing more she could do for her father today, when one of his notebooks caught her eye. Curiosity got the better of her, as it always seemed to do. Slowly, careful not to wake him, Morgan pulled the pieces of paper out from beneath Tony’s sleeping figure and took a seat on the opposite end of the bench to read the schematics for… A flying car?

Some of the schemes were old. Really old. They dated back to the 1930s, almost a century before her time, and were signed by one Howard Stark. Other plans were more modern, recent updates and changes to the original idea. Chemical formulas and additives to improve the fuel and make it run. 

There were multiple variations but none would work - something her father seemed aware of, if the dark scribbles that covered the papers were anything to go by. The solutions would combust under these conditions and the engine relied on something called zero matter which Morgan decided was either something from a madman’s delusion or an experimental science lost to history. 

The entire idea behind zero matter was preposterous. Every one of its apparent properties contradicted the others, from its incredible density to weightlessness and ability to disrupt gravity and create its own energy fields. Morgan’s only conclusion was that her grandfather had started to lose it in his old age.

Before she could consider the viability of Tony’s replacement solutions, the papers were snatched away from beneath her gaze. "Those are private! Why are you here? Who are you? Do I know you?”

The questions became less aggressive as they went on, her father’s anger turning into confusion as he studied her. “Seriously, do I know you?”

“I… The lab next door. It’s mine.”

Tony shook his head, not buying it at all. “Unless you’re working in the boiler room, there is no lab next door. Come on, I definitely know you from somewhere? Have we been out before? You’re not one of Charlene’s friends are you?”

“No, no. We have definitely not gone out together.”

“You take Professor Carlson’s mechanical engineering class?” Tony asked.

With no other way to explain her familiarity - the truth being absolutely out of the question - Morgan went with it. “Yep, that must be it. You sit at the front.”

“The back.”

“The back. That’s what I meant. I sit at the front.” She offered him her hand. “Morgan S- Potts.”

“Well, Morgan Spots,” Tony said, gathering the papers and turning his back on her. “This lab is out of bounds so I’ll see you around.”

Morgan scrambled off her stool after him. “No, no, please. I want to help. I can help. This formula,” She plucked a small scrap of paper from the pile and tapped the hastily sketched chemical structure. “If you alter the stereochemistry then it will make it more stable. And if you increase the pressure in the primary combustion tank then you should be able to generate enough thrust to lift the car, with a few modifications.”

A long moment passed as Tony studied her and considered her words. Her heart thumped in her chest as she waited; she had never felt so nervous in her entire life. Was this what it was like to not know the answer in a test? To offer a suggestion and not know that it was absolutely, infallibly correct? She hated it. 

“The system can’t handle the sort of pressure you’re proposing,” Tony said, his decision on her made. He set the papers back down on the bench, spreading them out so they covered the entire surface. Pointing to another diagram, he said, “This tank would explode.”

“Not if you made it out of a vibranium alloy.”

Whatever leap of faith Tony had taken in Morgan visibly faltered. “That’s not a real element.”

She could have proven otherwise there and then, shown him how to synthesise the rare metal - she’d watched the videos enough of his future self re-discovering the element enough to have memorised every detail of its structure and the preparation process - but knew it could irreparably damage the timeline. 

Instead, she gave him a bright, over confident smile and laughed, “Of course. Just a theory I’m working on. Titanium, then. I know a way to manufacture an alloy that’s super light but strong enough to withstand the pressures you’d be putting it under.”

Morgan scribbled down a lattice structure and sketched out a way to produce the metal which would eventually be used to make her father’s Iron Man suits. This was enough to convince Tony that she actually did know what she was talking about; he planted himself on a stool and watched as she detailed the process, enraptured. 

The robotic arm came over to look too, or whatever it did without eyes or visible sensors. Tony shoved it back but its insistence to be included made Morgan smile. “I like your robot.”

“He’s useless. A big dummy really.”

“Seems pretty smart to me. Far better than most computer systems in this time.”

Tony frowned. “What do you mean in this time?”

“I mean… I…” With no real idea of how to talk herself out of that one, Morgan went for a complete change of subject instead. “How long have you been working on this? The car, I mean.”

Entirely aware that she was avoiding his question, Tony remained suspicious but answered her query nonetheless. “A few months.”

“So it’s not for credit then?”

“Got enough to pass this year already. I found the plans in a box and wanted to complete it for my dad. Make him see I’m not entirely useless.”

“You aren’t useless, Tony. You’re brilliant.”

“Says the girl who just managed to solve half my problems on her first attempt.”

Morgan grinned at the praise - she would never get tired of hearing how her dad approved of her work - but wasn’t going to let him get off that easily. “Is your dad not proud of the work you’ve done already? Everything you’ve achieved here, it’s marvellous.”

“He’s never proud, rarely even impressed. Sometimes he tells me that he’s ‘seen worse’ and I think the world might end because he isn’t being rude. I just want him to see I’m -” Tony’s distant gaze snapped back into focus as he narrowed his eyes at Morgan. He regarded her suspiciously, zeroing in on her pockets as if to check she wasn’t recording this to sell to a paper. 

It broke her heart to see her father so suspicious, of her specifically but of the entire world too. To know that he had no one to open up to, that he was constantly scared people were only being kind to get some kind of special treatment or a story was incredibly sad. Morgan had been lucky; her mother had ensured she had privacy and was able to grow up and live a semi normal life. Tony had never had that luxury. 

Anger, smothering the vulnerability, in his voice, Tony asked, “Why am I even telling you this?”

“I have one of those faces. My dad…” Morgan faltered. It never got easier to talk about her dad, no matter how much time she spent with his younger selves. “He wasn’t around long but always made me feel like I was the most important person in the world.”

“How nice for you.”

Morgan recoiled at his venomous tone but refused to take it to heart. He wasn’t angry at her. That honour belonged to his father. Cautiously, Morgan placed her hand over his. It must have caught him off guard as he just sat there stiffly but the moment she went to pull back he met her gaze, sharing his sadness, and she left her hand in place. 

“I can’t imagine what it’s been like you for, Tony, but you are doing amazing work and you should be very proud of your achievements. There are great things in store for you, you know.”

“Morgan Spots, are you sure we haven’t met before? It’s just… You remind me of someone else. A girl I used to know as a kid.” He pulled his hand back and drew it down his face, shaking away the comparison. “What is it with me and weird girls?”

“You think I’m weird?”

“All the greatest people are. Do you have time to stay, maybe? Work on this with me? There aren’t many people round here who can keep up with me. Your ideas are fascinating.”

Morgan met his request with a bright smile. They worked together through the night and when Tony finally collapsed she dragged him back to his dorm and handed him over to a sleepy eyed Rhodey. 

He wrapped his arm around the Tony shaped lump, strong enough to hold the deadweight without breaking a sweat. Morgan wondered how often he had the honour of dragging his roommate home from a night out. “It was nice to meet you, Morgan. See you again?”

“For sure.”

Once the door clicked shut, Morgan jumped back to her present. The sun was blinding through the windows, reflecting off the spotless surfaces, a sharp contrast to the dark lab she’d just spent the night in. She stepped out of the Rescue suit and slumped over her own workbench, exhaustion setting in. 

She didn’t have time to dwell on it, though, as HELEN announced a call waiting for her. Morgan nodded and the holographic image of her uncle appeared a few steps away. It was wild, comparing Rhodey now to how he’d been back at MIT. So much had changed, not all for the better, but he still had that kind, hopeful look in his eyes. “Uncle! Good morning! How have you been?”

“Good. Busy but good. You look tired, Morgan. Please tell me you’re sleeping and not spending all your time locked away in here?” She shrugged, gave a half smile that did little to convince him. Rhodey shook his head and sighed, “I swear you get more like him every day.”

“Uncle, did dad ever get his flying car to work?”

Rhodey’s eyes went wide. “How do you know about that? That was, without doubt, his greatest failure. Obviously Stark men were meant to fly around the universe but never in a car. He tried to manufacture these insane metals - they use them in tanks now, you know - but never got the bloody thing off the ground. I think it blew up. Everything else did in those days. Why the interest?”

“No reason. You’ll come visit soon, right? I miss you.”

His nostalgic expression morphed into a soft smile. “Of course. Pep told me you were working on something big. Care to share?”

“Not really, no.”

A little hurt but understanding the secrecy that came with invention, having spent many years putting up with a similar thing from Tony, Rhodey pushed on. Sounding more like he was addressing Congress than his niece, Rhodey shrugged it off and said, “Some other time, then.”

“Yeah. Another time.” Morgan said, thinking bitterly about just how true that was.


	4. Chapter 4

Distant fireworks lit up the night sky, the colourful showers reflected on the still lake. The phone didn’t stop ringing until they disconnected it, needing the solitude tonight. A few friends came to join them for dinner - Happy, Rhodey, Bruce, Peter, May and Harley - but it was far from a happy occasion. 

It was the twelfth anniversary of her father’s death and Morgan hated every second of this day. No one sat at the head of the table and the light stories - only told once a year when they couldn’t pretend he wasn’t here - were tinged with sadness. 

The entire world was grieving. It was oppressive, like a toxic gas that got into her lungs and then killed her slowly, turning every cell in her body against her until she was just a broken soul trapped inside a dead shell. She couldn’t bear it. 

Happy was the first to notice just how far Morgan retreated into herself. After dinner, he guided her out to the porch and offered to find her a cheeseburger - ‘the meal of heroes’ - because she’d barely touched her food but the last thing on her mind was food. Especially not her father’s favourite. 

“It hurts,” she admitted, resting her head on his shoulder. “Everyone is celebrating but no one is doing it for him. They celebrate that they’re alive and he’s just an afterthought. The man who saved humanity. That’s all he is now. Not the sarcastic billionaire. Not the caring husband. Not my dad. Just another martyr, someone else to hold up as a symbol of resistance.”

There was little Happy could say to cheer her up and he knew it. Gaze locked on the horizon, he frowned. “Is that Gerald? What is he doing?”

“Eating mum’s gojis. He learned how to open the gate. No fence can keep him out. He won’t teach the others though. Keeps the knowledge all to himself so they know he’s the boss.”

“What you working on at the moment? Pepper says she hardly sees you nowadays.”

Morgan groaned. Over the last few years, especially the past months, more and more people had told her the same thing and she was tired of hearing about it. “Just stuff.”

“Tony was the same,” Happy said, another sentiment she’d heard expressed again and again. “You should have seen him working on those suits in the beginning. He was never so happy as the first time it flew.”

“Were you there?" 

"No one was. Only JARVIS. I saw some of the test footage, though. He must have crashed into everything during those first tests. Those poor cars.” Happy smiled fondly. “But when he finally flew? Never seen him as proud as he did that morning. Before it complicated, before he was Iron Man and had the whole universe to fight, he was just an engineer who’d finally done it.”

“Do the videos still exist?”

Happy shook his head, shoulders slumping as he realised another piece of Tony’s life had been lost to history. “I doubt it. They’d have been lost with JARVIS.”

Not sharing his sadness, Morgan pulled Happy into a tight hug. “I’ll be in the lab if mum asks, alright?”

“Morgan?” Happy called after her. “What are you up to?”

—

The training videos did nothing to capture the pure joy on her father’s face. Admittedly, they were heavily fragmented after she’d recovered them from what remained of JARVIS’s memory banks but watching Tony take those first steps towards completing the Mark 2 was beyond words. 

Morgan had arrived at the start of the tests and made herself comfortable in a far corner of his lab. Hidden beneath a bench, stocked with enough snacks to last a week, Morgan stole all the coffee she needed and happily watched the epic fails and flying successes - quite literally - of her father’s tests from the secrecy of the shadows. 

It was all she could do not to burst into applause the first time he stabilised his flight boosters. Too engrossed in his work, Tony never saw her there but she suspected a wild cheering might give her away. On a few occasions, Dum-E drifted over in curiosity but Tony was too busy catching fire to put any stock into the robot’s constant trips to the corner (especially when he sent him there for being a pain in the ass).

JARVIS, of course, was the only one truly aware of her presence. The night she’d arrived, when the lab was dark and empty, she’d pleaded with the AI to keep her secrets. It hadn’t taken long to convince him of her story, especially when she synced Rescue to his systems. After that first conversation, he never spoke to her again but did send over readings and schematics for her to study as Tony progressed. 

When the big night finally came for the Mark 2’s first flight, Morgan could hardly contain herself. 

The pieces of his suit clicked in an out of place, each flap and booster systematically checked for fault, as Rescue simultaneously encased Morgan. HELEN came online, immediately bringing up the interface. “I missed you, Morg. Thought you were replacing me with JARVIS.”

“I’m not into older men,” Morgan retorted. “Can you patch me into dad’s systems? Mirror his interface?”

In the corner of her screen, a live video of her father flickered to life. Not heading JARVIS’s warnings, he grinned and said, “Sometimes, you have to run before you can walk.”

Morgan shook her head at the cheesy line. Ahead, the Mark 2’s boosters flared to life and Tony shot out the garage, clipping his head as he burst out into the open air. Following suit, Morgan stepped out from the corner of the room and said, “Activate shadow protocol and follow him, Len.”

Her armour changed from blue and silver to adaptive camouflage, similar - but infinitely better - to the cloaking technology on the Quinjets. “Systems checked,” HELEN confirmed. “All signals blocked from the Mark 2’s scanners. He won’t know you’re there. Ready?”

“So ready." 

Morgan’s flight path was far more stable than her father’s and she soon caught up with him. She held a position slightly above and behind, matching his excited exclamations as they soared around the night sky. For the first time in her life, Morgan felt truly free. There were no expectations, no worries here. It was just her and her father with nothing to keep them down. 

They swept past a fairground and then were flying higher and higher. Morgan watched the city grow smaller, amazed by the beauty of it all. Of course she’d seen the world from above in a plane but like this? It was something else entirely. 

However, her excitement was short lived. Nearby, ice crystals were starting to spread over the metal shell and the Mark 2 seized up. Morgan didn’t remember this on the tapes and her heart was racing for an entirely new reason. The connection between the suits crackled away, leaving her in the dark as to what her father was facing. 

"What’s happening, Len?”

HELEN scanned the suit and brought the information up on her display. “Potentially fatal build up of ice.”

“Why isn’t he stopping? HELEN!” Tony plummeted down past her and Morgan punched after him. “We need to break the ice. Quickly!”

She held out her arms, directing a sonic blast at the falling suit. Increasing the power, the ice began to shatter but Tony was still hurtling down towards the city. Morgan closed the gap between them ignoring HELEN’s advice to pull back. 

“Transfer power.”

“But Morg -”

“Do it!”

Her HUD flickered as she stretched out, fingers just grazing across the back of his suit. HELEN sent a jolt of power through the Mark 2, just enough to get the flaps open and slow his descent to allow the extra second for JARVIS to reboot. The connection between the suits was restored and the AI swooped him away to safety. 

Morgan swerved off back towards the house and landed roughly on the roof. She fell backwards, a relieved smile on her face. No matter how she wanted to, she couldn’t stay mad at her father’s recklessness when he was smiling like that. She stayed on the roof, watching as he came into land. 

Tony hovered above the opening in the roof then suddenly turned towards her, blaster powered, ready to shoot. Rescue vanished instantly, leaving Morgan in jeans and t-shirt, arms up and unthreatening as any other sixteen year old could be.

“Who are you? Why are you on my roof?”

“Just enjoying the view?”

Without reason, Tony landed on the roof and pulled his faceplate off, revealing wide eyes. “I know you. Why do I know you?” He racked his brain, quickly coming up with an answer. “MIT! You helped me with the car.”

“Did it work?”

“Never.”

“This did, though.”

A proud smile overcame his caution as Tony took another step closer. “Yeah it did.”

“Nothing will ever be the same now.”

“Miss Spots - or was it Potts? You’re not related to Pepper are you?” Morgan could see his brain turning and felt her insides churning. This was getting into uncomfortably dangerous waters. “You look very young. It’s been, what, twenty years since MIT and you’re still… What the hell is happening?”

In a moment of panic, Morgan blurted out, “You need to solve the icing problem. It’s important.” Then, without waiting for a response, she suited up - to his immense surprise - and vanished through the Quantum Realm. 

When she landed, she immediately jumped onto her computer - noting that, despite being gone for over a week, not even an hour had passed in her time over - and asked, “Did I screw up? Did anything change?”

The AI moved from the suit back to the mainframe and the seconds that passed felt like an eternity as she compared her systems. “No, Morg. There is a brief mention of delusions on that night but your dad put that down to concussion during the fall.”

“Thank god,” Morgan said, burying her hands in her face. That had been too close. “Upload the videos onto my private server, please. And make a physical copy of that flight; I never want to lose that.”

A knock on the door alerted her to Pepper’s presence. Judging by her disapproving expression at seeing her daughter in Rescue, she’d been there a few minutes. “You went flying? You should be careful on nights like this. The fireworks can be dangerous.”

“I’m fine mum. I just… I wanted to feel closer to him.”

“Did you?" 

Morgan smiled. "Yeah. It was like he was flying right there with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the positive comments so far, I really appreciate hearing from you!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sad one guys...

“You need to stop this.”

Five words that Morgan had dreaded hearing since she’d first started this adventure almost 10 years ago. In that time, the world around her had changed almost beyond recognition. She’d switched disciplines more times than she could count. Naturally, she made remarkable strides in every area of STEM she’d turned her hand to but none could hold her attention long enough to truly dedicate herself.

How could she when he was always there, calling her back?

Every few months, after swearing to herself that the one before had been her last trip, Morgan was drawn back to the machine, desperate to see Tony again. Over and over it continued, an obsession she couldn’t break. 

It was foolish to think a decade’s worth of trips would pass under the radar. She’d always known, in the back of her mind, that the day would come but it still hurt beyond words. 

Doctor Stephen Strange had stepped directly into her lab through one of his magic portals and sat down opposite her without waiting for the invitation. He explained how her trips through time were having a cumulative effect that was now too large to ignore. While he didn’t fully understand the Quantum Realm to the level that she and a few select others in the world did, Strange knew her frequent passage through it was also starting to take its toll. 

In short: he couldn’t allow it to continue. 

“Doctor, please…”

“I cannot risk the multiverse for you, Morgan. Your father gave his life to save us all and what you are doing risks everything.”

Morgan refused to cry but every word struck her heart like a blade, twisting deeper and deeper until she could hardly breathe. “One more?” she begged, desperation a bitter taste on her tongue. “Please. To say goodbye. Then when I get back I’ll destroy the equipment, erase the specs forever.”

Strange sighed. He closed his eyes and the gem around his neck briefly glowed green. Morgan couldn’t help the spike of hatred that flared in her gut. She didn’t understand everything, had never been brave enough to dive into that particular pool of knowledge, but she knew that small stone was, in part, responsible for her father’s death. She wanted to tear it from the sorcerer’s neck and smash it to pieces. 

“One. You can take one final trip and then that’s it. For good,” Strange said. “Who else knows about the technology?”

“No one. I was careful.”

“Well, that makes this easier, at least.” He stared at her expectantly. “Are you going now or are you waiting for something else?" 

Morgan mindlessly walked over to the portal, starting the activation sequence without a thought. She’d done it enough times that this was basically muscle memory. But when she turned to the computer to put in the coordinates, her mind went blank. This was the last time she was ever going to see her father. When should she go? She usually spent weeks planning her visits and now had to pick a destination without any thought. How could Strange expect her to do that?

Then it hit her. 

Inputting the data, she watched the programme render her pathway through the Quantum Realm. Over the years, she’d finally perfected the coding and was confident that it would take her to where and when she wanted to go, down to the minute. 

As Rescue encased her, Strange gave her a solemn nod. "I’m sorry, Morgan. This is the way it has to be.”

“I understand.”

The Quantum Realm swirled around her, the colours dimmer than usual, before spitting her out in exactly the same place, fifteen years ago. 

Her lab was just a semi constructed barn filled with Tony’s tools. One of his shirts hung over the wooden frame. Morgan slowly crossed the barn and stared at the checkered shirt like it was a hidden treasure. Scared it might be nothing more than an illusion, a memory lost to time, she grabbed it and held it to her face, breathing in the smells. Oil, grease, aftershave. It was her father, as she remembered from her childhood. 

Morgan slipped it on in hope of quenching the sadness in her heart. Infact, it only made the pain worse. 

She passed a little tent - her old clubhouse/castle/spaceship, whatever her overactive imagination had wanted it to be - and sat on a bench by the lake. The wind was nonexistent tonight, a perfectly normal night. Except it wasn’t. This was the night that changed everything. Her life would never be the same again after today.

In the main house, she watched the light in her bedroom go off. Sounds of movement came from the garage - Tony’s lab - as he no doubt finished construction on the device that had brought her here. There was a bright flash then a few minutes later another, signalling his return. 

Dishevelled, lost in thought, Tony stumbled out the garage and paced the perimeter of his home. Eventually he drifted of course towards the lake, consciously or not, and smiled when he saw her waiting. He sat on the bench beside her, staring out across the water. “I hoped you’d come tonight. I haven’t seen you since Germany when you helped me get Rhodey out. I thought you’d given up on me after that. You look older. Finally.”

“I am. I’m nineteen next month.”

“Happy birthday. Will you be honest with me, seeing how tomorrow…” He could barely say the words, and Morgan was grateful. She didn’t want to hear them. Couldn’t. Tony turned to face her and asked, or rather stated, “You’re a time traveller.”

“Yes.”

“My tech?”

She nodded. “Your tech. My modifications. You did a great job of ensuring that no one else got their hands on it. I had to fill in a lot of gaps. Took me ten years to get it perfect. Your system worked but needed improvement for continual use. I worked out how to counter the self interference - with each trip, a part of me remains in the Quantum Realm and disrupts the path that future mes take. Not something you had to think about, really.”

“So you are a genius, then.”

“Guilty.”

“All those times when I was a kid or at my lowest times… It was always you? Not a delusion?” Morgan nodded. “Why?”

“I didn’t want you to be sad.” Morgan’s eyes grew wet, barely able to hold back the tears. 

Tony glanced back towards the house, eaze lingering on her bedroom window. “You’re her, aren’t you? My little girl, all grown up.”

Her tears came hard and fast then. Tony pulled her into a tight embrace, petting her hair and whispering comforting nothings. “I’m so proud of you. My beautiful girl. So brave. My Morgoona.”

For the first time in years, Morgan felt a sense of peace but it quickly gave way to anger. Why did the universe have to take him away? Hadn’t he suffered enough already? It wasn’t fair. “Please don’t do it.”

She swallowed deeply as he drew back, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Tony cupped her face, his heart visibly breaking. “You know I can’t sit back and let this happen. Especially now I know it worked. You’re here, safe and well. That is all that matters to me. Look at you. So strong.”

“Not strong enough to let you go.”

“I will always be here for you. Always. Just like you’ve been for me, Miss Spots.”

Morgan laughed and shoved his shoulder gently. “I panicked, alright? I flew with you that day, you know. The very first time. I kept you from falling. We gave the suit a burst of power to get it back online.”

“Just how many times have you saved my life?”

“Six? Seven? Mum was right; trouble has a way of finding you.”

Tony’s smile cracked. “Pepper… Is she - she’s okay, right?”

More tears threatened to fall but Morgan fiercely held them back. “We’re both okay. Everyone is, because of you.”

“We win?”

Did they, really? Morgan wasn’t sure. The team had failed to collect the stones on their first try and, according to all accounts, caused mayhem to the timelines. Natasha, the bravest of them all, gave her life on a distant planet and died in the cold. Thanos returned and hundreds more died in the battle, including Tony. Steve was gone and, fifteen years later, the world was still recovering. 

Pulling Tony into a tight hug, Morgan buried her head in his shoulder and whispered, “Yeah. You win. I love you dad.”

“I love you three thousand, kiddo.” Sensing her pull away, Tony asked, “Stay a little longer?”

Oh, she wanted to. So, so desperately. She wanted to tell him about her life and her accomplishments, to talk about Gerald and her mum and everything that he’d missed out on these past years. Every fibre of her being wanted to stay put but she knew her time was up. The future was calling and if she waited a moment longer then she might never return. “I can’t.”

“Of course not.”

“I miss you.”

“I’m always here, Morgan. I will always be here for you.”

They hugged a few seconds longer before Morgan stepped away, Rescue encasing her and hiding her pain. Tony smiled in recognition of the armour. “Still stealing your mum’s clothes?”

Grateful for how the suit distorted her words, hid the breaking of her voice, Morgan said, “She never wears it.”

“Good. Good. I love you Morgan.”

“I love you, too. Bye dad.”

Morgan had barely regained awareness of her lab around her before she grabbed a chair and whacked it against the portal generator. In a blind rage of anger at the universe and a grief that had been building her entire life, she destroyed the platform. She tore off panels until her hands were sliced apart by the sharp metal edges. She yanked the wires out, sliced them to pieces, cutting its innards to shreds until all that remained was a smoking pile of rubble. 

She ripped the guidance system from her wrist and smashed it against the worktop, splintering the screen and decimating the intricate internal mechanisms. Clenching the edge of the bench, breathing raggedly, Morgan hissed, “Delete it.”

“Everything?” HELEN asked. “Are you sure?”

“All of it.” Cradling the broken device in her bleeding hands, Morgan sank to the floor, too numb to feel the cold tiles or burning pain in her arms. “The entire code. Any references to it. Journals about the Quantum Realm. Recovered files from JARVIS’s system. My videos. All of it.”

“Morgan… Are you sure this is-”

“Do it!” she screamed, curling up in a ball. Sobs wracked her body, drained her of everything. Energy. Emotion. Life. Morgan cried until there was nothing left to feel. 

Some hours later, Pepper crept in with a blanket and a bundle of bandages. She sat down beside her daughter and wordlessly tended to the wounds on her hands, the gentle, repetitive touches slowly drawing Morgan back out of her shell. Once she was done, Pepper pressed a kiss to Morgan’s forehead. “Strange told me everything.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No. No. I’m not angry. I understand. I just wish I had been there for you.”

Morgan met her mother’s eyes, vision blurring as the tears sprung up again. “You’ve always been here for me mum.”

“Was he what you expected?”

“Yes. No. Do you miss him?”

“Every single day.”

“Would you have gone back with me?”

Pepper laughed, wiping her eyes. “Goodness no. I lived it once already. That was quite enough for me. I loved your father so much but god that man drove me to the edge so many times. I wouldn’t have changed a second of it, though.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the lovely comments on this series, I truly appreciate each and every one (especially the ones where you cry or shout at me, those are my favourites!) I hope that you enjoy this last past, it is as equally bitter sweet as the rest but I think ends with a lot of hope.   
> Catch me taking ideas from the comics and twisting them to fit my own stories, too.

The fire was glorious. Truly. It filled the lab with such an intense heat that one of the computer screens began to melt, resembling a piece of curious modern art. A bright blue gas filled the - no longer - pristine lab, a sharp contrast to the toxic cloud of smoke that licked the ceiling. 

Morgan glanced over to Shuri then back to the sealed lab, her spirits dropping. It wasn’t like there was anything in the room that couldn’t be replaced but she really had liked the design and didn’t want to be the one to tell her mother that they’d destroyed the lab again. The princess, on the other hand, wore a blinding smile like a supervillain staring down upon a world finally succumbing to destruction. 

“Well,” Shuri said, far too cheerful as the blue gas darkened to mimic the swirling night sky. The fire in the corner continued to burn bright like a supernova, shining through the thick wall of smoke. “That didn’t work.”

“I really thought we had it this time,” Morgan groaned, banging her head against the bulletproof glass. The thick surface vibrated softly against her skin as the extractor fans stuttered to life and began to clear the room of the poisonous gases. “This is pointless. We’ve been at it for months.”

“Patience, friend. This was an improvement. Let us return to the drawing board and make some changes. I’ll take them back to Wakanda with me to manufacture the new parts and we can try again next month.”

Her cool calmness reminded Morgan why she and the princess made such a good team. Shuri’s sensibility was the perfect match for Morgan’s own impulsive nature. Her spontaneous bursts of creativity were refined by Shuri’s thoughtful analysis and, on the reverse, Morgan was often able to solve Shuri’s problems by applying her left field approach to mechanics and chemistry and coming up with an entirely bizarre, but successful, solution. 

Unfortunately, their ideas were often so ambitious that neither T'Challa nor Pepper stuck around when they started experimenting. It was probably for the best; this fire was one of the smallest they’d ever had. Most testing days began now with a three mile exclusion zone being set into place, extended to five on particularly dangerous tests. 

“The lab is safe again,” HELEN declared. “However, the prototype is beyond repair and the last of the Adamantium is gone.”

“Damn it!” Morgan yelled, kicking a chair as they re-entered the lab. It skidded across the tiled floor, hitting the far wall. She would have been impressed if not for the sharp pain in her toe. “That’s it. I’m done. I give up.”

Shuri smiled sympathetically. Recognising that no further work would be done today, she pulled her friend into a hug and said, “I’ll come by tomorrow before I leave to check in on you. Take care, Morgan.”

Once she was alone, Morgan fell onto the charred remains of the sofa - much to her mother’s annoyance, and occasional concern, she spent many nights sleeping out here instead of in her bed - and stared up at the blue tinged ceiling tiles. “What’s going on with me, Len?”

These past few months, ever since Strange had ended her trips to the past, nothing had gone right. Her experiments were failing left, right and centre. All her new inventions had developed unexpected problems. Ideas were slow to come by, if they even came at all. She’d fallen behind on every contracted project and was a few weeks from being removed as a lead scientist on multiple experiments. 

It was like all of her creative juices had dried up. Her passion to create was dwindling. It was like, in destroying that machine, she’d lost a part of herself. Her heart wasn’t in this, wasn’t in anything, anymore. 

“I think you miss your father,” HELEN said softly. 

Morgan touched the scar on the back of her hand. The messy wound had never really healed after she smashed the time portal to pieces. She could have had it removed, that sort of technology was widely available, but the uneven bump stood as a sort of monument to what she’d lost.

Her hand dropped as she blinked back tears. Plucking at the burnt, frayed fabric on the edge of the sofa, Morgan’s eyes fell closed. Picturing her father in her mind, she said, “I don’t know how to carry on without him. I spent years reading about his life, fixing the code, going back… It felt like he never left. He was always there. But now… I feel so alone.”

“You aren’t alone, Morg.”

“I love you, Len, I really do but… You’re not him. It feels like he died all over again but this time I actually knew him. I was there throughout his entire life and he… It’s not fair. If I could just speak to him again… We made a great team, you know? All those times I helped him out at MIT. Fixed his codes in Malibu. I helped him design this house, did you know that? If he was here now, I'd…”

“You’d what?”

Morgan threw her hands into the air. “I don’t know! I don’t know,” she sighed. “All I know is that he’s gone and he will never be able to help me with my codes or make me coffee or tell me to go to bed and get sleep before I end up like him.”

“Well, that’s not entirely true.”

She shot upright, falling off the sofa in the process. Morgan rubbed her head, testing for a concussion as she stared into the eyes of her father. Right there. A hologram but so real, his gaze alert and alive. It was impossible. 

He crouched down in front of her, fingers tracing the line of her cheek. “Hey, you.”

“What… What’s happening. HELEN?" 

The holographic image grinned and gave a little wave. 

Morgan’s head was spinning. This couldn’t be real. She backed away, scrambling across the sooty floor, shaking her head. "No. Nope. No. This isn’t helping. Effort appreciated, Len, but no.”

“Morgoona,” the image murmured, urging her heart to believe.

“This isn’t funny. Stop it.”

A part of her wanted to believe it was true. So desperately, she needed it to be real. But how could it be? HELEN had been there for her for as long as she could remember. Ever since… But surely… Why now? It couldn’t be…

Tony’s smile grew. “My clever girl. You’re almost there.”

“You're…” Morgan leant forward on her knees, face to face with the hologram. The image wobbled as her hand passed through. This was insane. Utterly, completely insane. And yet, she knew. In her heart, she knew. Somehow, this was her father. “All this time?”

“I promised I’d always be here for you.”

“Why not just tell me? Why pretend?” she screamed, anger and relief and all manner of complicated emotions bringing tears to her eyes. Morgan rubbed her eyes, refusing to cry. She took a deep breath, taking a moment to collect the many racing thoughts currently swamping her brain. “How? How did you upload yourself into the system? When? Why are you only showing me now? Did HELEN ever exist? Was she -”

“Breathe, kiddo.” He mimicked a dramatic slow breathing until Morgan calmed down then explained, “I knew… I hoped I wouldn’t but I knew I wouldn’t survive. I didn’t want to leave you alone, though, especially after you visited me that night. I looked back and saw how lonely you’d been and I hated it. So I uploaded a copy of myself into a base framework and have watched you grow up into this beautiful, accomplished lady.”

Morgan shook her head. “This isn’t possible in one evening. It would take… Oh. This wasn’t - you’d been working on this a long time, hadn’t you?”

“From the day you were born.”

“But why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to make things hard for you.” His smile dipped, clearly aware that in not telling her it had done the very thing he had set out to avoid. “I was going to tell you, when you were ready. But then you found the portal and kept coming back to see me. It was already so complicated at that point I didn’t want to make it worse.”

“You suck.”

Tony laughed. “So I’ve been told.”

Comfortable silence fell between them as Morgan processed this insane revelation. It was a lot to process, too much for one afternoon. As she considered everything, one particular thought came to the forefront of her mind. “Wait… If you’ve always been HELEN, you really were flying with me that night.”

He nodded, his fondness so intense it was almost tangible. “I’ve never seen you so happy.”

“I wish you hadn’t deleted all those files now.” Morgan had regretted destroying all the evidence of her time travelling but eventually accepted it was for the best. The questions they would have caused… Strange was right; the knowledge was too dangerous for the universe. 

But that hadn’t stopped Morgan from searching for fragments of data, images and audio recordings from Rescue. She’d found none, though. HELEN - or Tony as she now knew her to be - had done too good a job at following her order. “I’d love to have seen that again.”

Beside her, Tony wore a guilty expression. “About that…”

“I don’t understand. I looked everywhere.”

Tony pointed to a tile on the wall, burned in the fire and now hanging slightly ajar from the wall. Morgan pried it free to reveal a small hiding place, inside of which sat a black box. Inside, a data chip that was literally buzzing with energy. “You told me you wanted a physical copy so you’d never forget. I kept the memories safe, like you asked.”

Cradling the chip, aware how dangerous its existence was for the multiverse but unable to care in that moment, Morgan sat back down beside Tony. Convinced that she could smell his aftershave, she asked, “Why a woman? And why HELEN?”

“The programme has no gender. It’s surprisingly freeing. And as for the name,” he paused, thoughtfully. “Happiness, eternal love, even now.”

“No way. You just made that up.”

Tony grinned. “So what if I did? It works. You’re smiling. Win win.”

He waved his hand and a screen appeared in the air, detailing the many projects Morgan had on the go. Tony studied the list then brought up the one he liked the sound of the most, turning to his daughter. “Now, you were struggling with this and I have a few ideas, if you still want my help.”

There was no question. This was everything Morgan had ever wanted. As they discussed the failings of the last design, Morgan found her brain once again flooded with ideas. There was still a lot to work through but her dad was back. He was alive, sort of, and had kept his promise; he was always there for her, death be damned. Together, they could achieve anything and Morgan knew that while she’d had fun running around in the past that the future was the place to be now.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think!!


End file.
